Providing you with the tools to live healthfully in this increasingly challenging world.

Food sensitivities

Picky eaters may learn that certain foods hurt their tummy and so, unconsciously, avoid those foods. Here at Practical Health Solutions, LLC, we do a blood test to identify antibodies to certain foods. For those who have the time, the elimination diet may be used instead to identify food sensitivities. I prefer to do blood testing since some food reactions occur 2 to 3 days after the person ingests the food, making it difficult to identify what you are reacting to.

For most people, we do a venipuncture because this type of testing allows us to test for a wider array of foods and environmental sensitivities. When testing children for food sensitivities, I usually do a heel stick instead so as not to traumatize them by seeing a needle piercing their skin.

Food sensitivities occur as a result of developing leaky gut.﻿Leaky gut is the result of inflammation in the gut which may have several causes. At Practical Health Solutions, LLC, we identify the cause of the inflammation, treat the cause and then follow up with a gut-healing protocol. Just avoiding the foods to which you are sensitive isn't enough to resolve leaky gut, unless you have an allergy to a food that set off the inflammation in the first place. To heal the gut and resolve food sensitivities, we need to remove the source of inflammation so that the gut can heal itself. Then, after the source of inflammation has been resolved, the offending foods need to be avoiding for a period of time to give the antibodies to those foods time to die off. After this time, foods are introduced one at a time, 4 days apart, with the patient paying close attention to whether or not they have a reaction to the food. Alternatively, the person may choose to have their blood tested again to see if they still have antibodies to any of the foods.

If you would like to schedule an appointment to be tested for food sensitivities, you may call Practical Health Solutions, LLC at ﻿970-482-2010.